Certain components such as optical components must maintain their alignmental integrity in order to be effective. A change in the ambient temperature can result in thermal expansion or contraction of the device and/or its mounting surface. Accordingly, lateral and/or angular displacements of the alignment sensitive component result. For example, optical components such as laser optical-path folding prisms are fixed to the mounting surface by a small amount of epoxy adhesive. When a change in temperature occurs, the unequal temperature coefficients of expansion of the prism, adhesive and mount cause undesirable angular and lateral displacements of the prism.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a device for maintaining the alignmental integrity of an alignment sensitive component over a wide range of temperatures.
It is a further object of this invention to accomplish the above result simply and inexpensively.